Returning to New York he heard that unscrupulous men had stolen or "pirated" his ideas, and that the sale of sewing machines was now a thriving business. But Howe was determined to uphold his rights. In 1859, after a battle of many years in the law courts, he secured the full and complete title to his invention. =141. A Turn in Fortune.= The man who had faced poverty and rebuffs all his days now came into great wealth. His income each year would be equal to-day to at least a million dollars. Sewing machines have now become almost a necessity in all American homes. It is hard to realize the amount of close, slow, exacting work from which Howe's machine has released women everywhere. The work of the most skillful needlewomen is not to be compared in speed and evenness with machine stitching. Garments now can be produced in vastly greater quantities than by hand work, and machine stitching is much more durable. When the Civil War came, Howe's sewing machine made tents, shoes, and uniforms for the great Union army which would not have had them in time otherwise. Howe himself enlisted as a private and served while his health lasted. He died in 1867 when only forty-eight years old. SUGGESTIONS INTENDED TO HELP THE PUPIL =The Leading Facts.= _1._ Fulton's invention greatly increased commerce before the coming of railroads. _2._ Congress granted Morse money to build a telegraph line, after many delays. _3._ Bell and Gray invented the telephone. _4._ Marconi invented wireless telegraphy. _5._ Cyrus Field after many failures laid a permanent cable across the Atlantic in 1866. _6._ McCormick's reaper hastened the settlement of the West. _7._ Howe became rich through the invention of the sewing machine. =Study Questions.= _1._ Tell of early attempts to build steamboats. _2._ Give the story of the _Clermont_. _3._ Give an account of the steps by which Morse won success. _4._ How many attempts did Field make before a permanent cable was laid? _5._ What was the great importance of McCormick's reaper? _6._ Describe Howe's first sewing machine. =Suggested Readings.= ROBERT FULTON: Glascock, _Stories of Columbia_, 186-188; Wright, _Children's Stories of American Progress_, 104-120; Thurston, _Robert Fulton_. SAMUEL F. B. MORSE: Trowbridge, _Samuel Finley Breeze Morse_; Mowry, _American Inventions and Inventors_, 270-277; Holland, _Historic Inventions_, 168-188. BELL AND GRAY: Holland, _Historic Inventions_, 215-232. CYRUS WEST FIELD: Judson, _Cyrus W. Field_; Doubleday, _Stories of Inventors_, 3-16; Mowry, _American Inventions and Inventors_, 278-285. CYRUS H. MCCORMICK: Brooks, _The Story of Corn_, 218-220; Forman, _Stories of Useful Inventions_, 91-96; Sanford, _The Story of Agriculture in the United States_, 144-149. ELIAS HOWE: Hubert, _Inventors_, 99-110. THE MEN WHO WON TEXAS, THE OREGON COUNTRY, AND CALIFORNIA SAM HOUSTON, HERO OF SAN JACINTO